You are who you are. You can aspire to be a better version of you but you will never be something you are not. I see way too many people trying to force their business to be something it isn’t or trying to force the market to accept what it is pushing even tho it clearly doesn’t want it.
If you are a creative whatever ahead of your time, be patient. If you are just wrong, stop forcing what the world does not want or need down its throat. If you can develop some trust, maybe you will get the opportunity to ask for the sale. Just please stop forcing shit down the pipe. If the market wants, it will buy. If you can tell a good tale and get the interest of the market, you have a chance.
In retail, most of us are DJ’s of popular content. A DJ plays hits that people want to hear at the appropriate time. This is what we do in retail. We sell people what they want. We give them access to what they see in the world and want a piece of for themselves. It is that simple, if you want to drive opinion go be an editor at Vogue. If you want to design what is next, go start a label. If you want to make money selling product, be the damned DJ and stop acting as if you are something you are not.
Business is about progress. You are not making progress if you can’t sell more than you are spending. You can only fire so many people and cut so many expenses to hide what you are doing. If you are trying to be something you are not, you eventually will hit the wall known as reality face 1st, and most likely alone. If you are giving the consumer what they want at a the appropriate price, you should be growing. Growth is progress. More staff to handle more customers and more product to sell to the expanding customer count is progress! Staying the same or shrinking is your ego getting in the way.
Brian Wright
CEO Phitin
Owner, Killer B Combat Sports